Head Of Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, Another Indian Cleric Go Missing In Pakistan

Head cleric of Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah and his nephew were last seen at a shrine in Lahore.

New Delhi: Two Indian clerics, including Syed Asif Ali Nizami the top cleric of New Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, are missing in Pakistan. The government has taken the matter up with Islamabad, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said this morning. Ms Swaraj tweeted that 80-year-old Syed Asif Ali Nizami and his nephew Nazim Ali Nizami had travelled to Pakistan on March 8. She said they went missing after landing at the Karachi airport. "We have taken up this matter with Government of Pakistan and requested them for an update on both the Indian nationals in Pakistan," the minister said.

The head priest's son Sazid Ali Nizami said his father and 60-year-old cousin had gone to Pakistan on a pilgrimage to the famous Daata Darbar shrine in Lahore and were to fly to Karachi from there yesterday. His family's last contact with his father, he said, was from the Karachi airport.

"On March 14, they offered another 'chadar' at Daata Darbar sufi shrine in Lahore. The next day, they reached Lahore airport to take a flight to Karachi at 4:30 pm. At the Lahore airport, my cousin was stopped by authorities to clear some documentation and my father was asked to board the flight," Sazid Ali Nizami told news agency IANS.

He said that their mobile phones have been switched off since. "We have no information as such. We have been putting up our landline numbers in advertisements," he said.

The family said Nazim Ali Nizami was stopped at the Lahore airport because he had incomplete travel papers.

The two clerics had already visited Karachi earlier this month to meet their relatives before travelling to Lahore.